Serbian community in Romania well organised and respected

Serbs in Romania are one of 18 recognised national minorities, Tomašević pointed out and added that according to the last Census implemented in 2011, there are 18,076 Serbs living in Romania.

According to his words, the majority, i.e. 90 % of Serbs live in the west of Romania in four counties: Arad, Timiş, Caraş-Severin and Mehedinţi, while in Bucharest live only 250 Serbs.

“Rights of Serbs are respected in Romania. Association of Serbs in Romania, in which are practically all Serbs, contribute to good status with their activities. Serbs have one MP in the Romanian Parliament, and with their activities set a good example how our community should be organised”, Tomašević stated.

As far as Serbian language in Romania is concerned, Tomašević says that classes in Serbian language are attended in 32 schools.

Out of this number, as he mentioned, classes in Serbian language as mother tongue are carried out in 18 schools, while in 14 schools Serbian language is an elective subject.

Romanian legislation allows that national minorities, in settlements where there are more than 20% of them, have the right to use their mother tongue as official tongue”, Serbian Ambassador explained.

Tomašević said that Serbs in several settlements have notice boards and toponyms in Serbian language.

On the occasion of marking 15 years of accession of Romania to the European Union, a group of Serbian journalists visited the country, and the Romanian representatives acquainted the Serbian media with examples of good practices and successfully implemented EU-funded projects.

One of them is the Project “Pulse of Europe”, implemented under the auspices of the European Union, with the aim of bringing closer the process of European integration to the citizens, and providing examples of European good practices.

The goal is to explain the public in Serbia how EU Member States successfully overcame the challenges Serbia is facing now in the European integration process.

Serbian Ambassador pointed out that Romania is working on economic diplomacy, and that in the last two years the offer of Serbian products in that country has increased multiple times.

“There are more than 200 Serbian products on the Romanian market found in the two leading retail chains. We are currently working to enable sales of Serbian products in the third retail chain, which we consider extremely important. Economic diplomacy takes a lot of effort, and in the last two and a half years we succeeded in bringing in the Romanian market numerous products, unlike the previous period when we had only one Serbian manufacturer", Serbian Ambassador said.

A promotion of Serbian wines and rakijas was recently held in the Romanian capital, immediately after the Wine Fair “Wine Vision“, organised within the Open Balkan Initiative”, Tomašević noted.

He said that on this occasion all the best from Serbia was presented, and that the representatives of Serbian wineries and distilleries had the opportunity to contact distributers from Romania, but also representatives of hotels, bars and restaurants.

Tomašević emphasised that the Serbian community in Romania nurtures Serbian tradition and culture, but is at the same time loyal to Romania, which makes Serbs, as he says, an important bridge between the two countries.

Source: Tanjug